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Taylor has Barakey set for elusive accolade

Chris Roots

"With Hay List [pictured] there was always soundness issues because of his feet on the hard tracks over here" ... trainer Jimmy Taylor Photo: Jenny Evans

JIMMY TAYLOR knows what it feels like to ride "a champion" and he has trained another, but unbeaten Barakey might be the best horse he has come across.

After 10 races, the Perth sprinter is preparing for his biggest test in Saturday's $500,000 Winterbottom Stakes (1200 metres) at weight-for-age and has been compared to Taylor's other wonderful sprinter, Hay List, which went on to make his name with Gosford horseman John McNair.

"They are very comparable. Hay List got beaten going for his ninth win but we probably shouldn't have started him that day," Taylor said. "With Hay List there was always soundness issues because of his feet on the hard tracks over here. John was able to get the best out of him."

Hay List was at the top of his picks in the 48-year-old's training career, which has so far spanned 17 years, before Barakey came along. As a trainer, he is yet to win a group 1, something he achieved a few times in 17 years as a jockey.

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"You don't get a lot of chances to win them over here. There only four a year and the best I have done is run a second a couple of years back," Taylor said. "I have had some good sprinters but you have to have the right horse at the right time. I have won all the big sprints here other than the Winterbottom, so hopefully Barakey can put that right."

Taylor went close to the pinnacle of racing as a jockey when he rode Moss Kingdom. The stayer won the Perth and Adelaide cups in 1984 and was favourite for the Melbourne Cup a month out. "He was a champion that bloke," Taylor said.

''He was a two-miler with a sprint. He was a $5 favourite for the Melbourne Cup when he broke down, it was a tragedy because Black Knight won the Cup that year and he would have eaten him. He was definitely the best I rode, but Barakey, even though he is a sprinter, is getting up there with him.

"If he can win a group 1 from the outside barrier [10] then I would say it would take him past him."

Barakey has won all 10 of his starts, the last win taking him past 1880 Melbourne Cup winner Grand Flaneur, which finished his unbeaten career on nine. In Australia, only Black Caviar has made a better start to a career. Taylor admits he has protected and placed Barakey to advantage to keep the sequence alive. The five-year-old has started odds-on at each of his runs, so the $2.20 available in the Winterbottom is a luxury not previously seen.

"I like to take them through their grades because the more wins they have, the more confidence they get and there is no need to rush," Taylor said. "A lot of trainers want to rush and jump grades but I don't think that is worth it. He hasn't really had a gut-buster in those wins and we only really [pushed] him once in those wins and he won by 5½ lengths and broke a record."

That was the Northam Stakes, his first black-type win and eighth overall. It was the final run of a short autumn campaign, which was tailored to have him at his top for the Winterbottom.

"This is the race we have targeted and if he can win we would have to take him over there [to Melbourne and Sydney] because there would be nothing left here for him," Taylor said. "It is going to be tough for barrier 10 because he is going to have to work from out there and Travinator is very good horse and has the rails. It is weight-for-age and those horses coming from the Melbourne spring carnival are a different level to what he has met before. But he is a very good horse."